Sadly that explains a lot. Try keeping an eye on two or three toddlers & this type of nonsense stops as you're just too exhausted to anything more than the basics. Poor John will want to get to Oxford or Yale (or anywhere that will have him) as soon as possible to escape this lunatic (and to escape all his friends constantly wanting to go to his house... to eye fark mom)

/it's sad how many parents of just one child suddenly become experts on all children & how they do things is the only way possible to raise a child

My daughter turned 3 this month and can recognize most of the alphabet on flash cards. That was without Baby Einstein or anything similar. She 'colors' with my iPod in the car to keep herself occupied as well.

I have a free-range 3yo. We let him learn at his own pace, when he wants to learn. At 18 months one of his little friends could count to ten and his mother was SO PROUD. That kid could say "onetwothreefour...", he had ZERO understanding of what it meant. Mine just played with his cars until he could cognitively understand that two cars is more than one car and then we started counting stuff and then we started showing him the number and telling that meant "2" and now the kid can count to 13 and do simple addition and subtraction. No special courses or flashcards or any of that jazz - just counting everywhere we went (steps, trees, cars, leaves, whatever).

Your kid is going to be smart or stupid - as long as you pay attention to them and talk to them they'll learn to their potential.

Wodan11:From TFA: He's 3 yrs old and just now starting to recognize words. She started to read to him at 4 days old.

Nothing to see here (except for the stacked mom), move along.

I taught myself to read by the age of 2. My parents both said I was always pointing at words on signs and asking 'what does that say', and they'd tell me. Then I started putting the words together to make sentences, and then read our set of encyclopedias from A to Z.

Kids should not be "taught" anything until at least 3 or 4 years of age, and even then only if they are interested.

Why? Young kids can be taught quite productively if you know what you're doing.Teaching a kid "baby sign" can allow them to tell you whether they're hungry or whatever even before they can speak.I don't really see the downside.

Bendal:Wodan11: From TFA: He's 3 yrs old and just now starting to recognize words. She started to read to him at 4 days old.

Nothing to see here (except for the stacked mom), move along.

I taught myself to read by the age of 2. My parents both said I was always pointing at words on signs and asking 'what does that say', and they'd tell me. Then I started putting the words together to make sentences, and then read our set of encyclopedias from A to Z.

Of course you can teach some children to do things much earlier than their peers. Other than braging rights, it does nothing for the child. ventually, other kids catch up and there is no difference between the children.